WoW Classic Servers: Jeff Kaplan's Thoughts and Blizzard Hiring

Blizzard announced classic servers are in development at BlizzCon 2017. Today we have some more news about them--hiring has opened up on Blizzard's site, and Jeff Kaplan, former Game Director for WoW, weighs in on what made classic great.\r\rJeff Kaplan on Classic WoW\rThe r\/overwatch team interviewed Jeff Kaplan, who is currently the Game Director for Overwatch but previously served as a quest designer and then Game Director for World of Warcraft. His interview was mostly about Overwatch, but he did share his opinions on classic servers.\r\rIn Kaplan's opinion, what made classic great was the sense of a small community in a larger game, when servers were close knit, you couldn't transfer off, and you earned reputation on your server.\r\rMake sure to check out the full interview, especially if you like Overwatch! \r\rturikk: Bonus question, you having worked on WoW, what do you think about WoW classic?\r\rJeff: I think classic is a great idea. I have great nostalgia for what the game was. I think people need to be careful about what they think the magic was versus what it actually was. I don\u2019t think what made the classic servers great was the shitty quests. I\u2019m allowed to say that because I wrote all of them. \r\rturikk: You'll have to answer for Stranglethorn Vale again.\r\rJeff: ...and then they deleted them all in Cataclysm, that was the "hey-Jeff\u2019s-off-the-team" update! \r\rI don't think it was my old crappy quests that made World of Warcraft great. What I think made old World of Warcraft great was the sense of community: that there wasn't dungeon finder. People don\u2019t know this, but the server concurrency was a lot smaller than it is today, purely because of technology we couldn\u2019t fit as many people on a server. When the game first launched, there were no server transfers, we didn't have server coalescing. There are a lot of systems in place now that I think actually make WoW a better game, that contributed to there being a small the community... people are going to be in shock at some things that were in classic WoW. Think about flying your griffin ... you had to go stop-by-stop, clicking each link. You couldn't go grab a beer while you flew across the world.\r\rEveryone: Unarmed skill! UBRS! Onyxia Cloak!\r\rJeff: Remembering that the auction house wasn\u2019t linked, so the server communally had to decide "I guess it's Ironforge and Orgrimmar, sorry other cities I guess we're never going to go to you". I think it\u2019s really cool, and I think there\u2019s more to do in that direction, but to me, I think the cool nostalgia is - getting back to - how do we create that the sense of small community within a larger game. It\u2019s not so much about giving me Burning Crusade or vanilla exactly -- I think it\u2019s a red herring that people have latched onto too hard. It\u2019s the community, not the game.\r\rBoozyPelican: The technological limits actually helped the community, in a way. You could become infamous on a server, there were names, and you could be known for causing trouble -- people would know what you're known for.\r\rJeff: Oh yeah\u2026\r\rBoozyPelican: The technology wasn\u2019t so seamless, you couldn\u2019t smoothly transfer servers, and that really shaped the community.\r\rJeff: I think there\u2019s actually a huge lesson here that applies to all games. All of game design is a tradeoff. Oftentimes, people look at design decisions in black and white; it\u2019s right or wrong, you\u2019re dumb for not doing this, and why aren't you listening to us, it should be this way. But it\u2019s actually full of subtlety and nuance in every single design decision. I think it's less about black and white or what\u2019s right or wrong, people mostly just think about what they\u2019re gaining. But the thing players really need to think about is what asking for certain changes forces them to give up.\r\rBlizzard Hiring\rClassic server development is still in its early stages, as Blizzard has just opened up hiring!\rSoftware Engineer\rSenior Software Engineer\r\r\rTravel Back in Time to a World of Warcraft before the Mists of Pandaria parted, and before Deathwing broke the world. When Blackrock Mountain, the Temple of Ahn\u2019Qiraj, and the floating citadel of Naxxramas were the most difficult challenges in Azeroth.\r\rThe World of Warcraft team is working on bringing that world back to our players with Classic WoW, and we need engineers to help us bring the past into the present.

Commentaires

Commentaire de killdar80

"people would know what you're known for." that right there is why i play on a low pop server. cant wait to try classic wow. :)

Commentaire de Interest

on 2017-11-07T18:16:17-06:00

Have to say I more or less agree with Jeff but as an extended point, I also think it's possible to develop a sense of community in more modern iterations of the game. I also think the players themselves may need to take a bit of initiative because as of now, some of the tools to drive great social interaction exist. For example:\r\r\rMythic and Mythic+ encourage players to get a regular group together to clear them. It also uses a more traditional LFG system and with BattleTag integration, it is possible to make friends off realm to run with. The same can also be said about other Premade Group Finder activities and CRZ.\rDungeon Finder can actually be pretty good for social interaction but there's problems. For example, a lack of consequence for negative behavior is going to strongly discourage social interaction and I have to imagine this was part of why the Overwatch team has had to clamp down on toxicity in their game.\r\r\rIn fact, I'm actually a bit concerned about how well the sense of community on a legacy server will turn out because there's already evidence of social interactions deteriorating in a certain other legacy game with similar restrictions. Jeff talks about Auction Houses not being linked and forcing players to congregate, yet the Grand Exchange on most Old School Runescape worlds are crowded and...people bankstand without talking. Sometimes fun things happen but not even remotely within the realm of what I expect when many players gather in a single spot.\r\rI also noticed that a lot of social interactions I experienced in the actual older versions of Runescape were barely present if at all on the legacy server iteration. Very rarely do people ask "what's your skill level guys?" or talk about current events or the like. I eventually concluded that players are more interested in being efficient and building up their character and I think this mentality happened independently of any changes that altered community interaction.\r\rUltimately, none of this is going to cause legacy servers to crash and burn and it's not like the magic is entirely gone but I'm even more skeptical about how much of it there will actually be than Jeff is.

Commentaire de Gnorx

on 2017-11-07T18:44:47-06:00

I'm hoping these Classic servers do have a few things of convenience, like the current specialisation switching. I remember blowing through all my gold testing out new specs and needing to go to the city every time, or even if they bring back dual specialisation. And if they include old and new models, making it a bit easier to find in the UI, that'd be neat.

Commentaire de kodora1316

on 2017-11-07T18:58:49-06:00

I\u2019m glad they\u2019re doing this. Now the people who complain about wow not being like vanilla anymore can shut up, get off my current server, and go play it. I am quite happy about this and I will never once play it. ( Started in BC and I don\u2019t want to go back. Generally speaking, I like the many quality of life changes. )

Commentaire de Noralya

on 2017-11-07T19:16:33-06:00

Hoping the design team updates the graphics on the whole of Azeroth in order to keep it interesting for another 1000 years.

Commentaire de SuperAdam

on 2017-11-07T19:22:02-06:00

I may or may have not played on private servers, but I can for sure say that the choice to bring Vanilla back is far from a bad decision.

Commentaire de Mewlyz

on 2017-11-07T19:38:31-06:00

I wish Blizzard posted job opportunities like "coffee jockey" or "idea dart collector" because then I might have a chance at ever working there

Commentaire de Emmique

on 2017-11-07T19:40:41-06:00

It'll be interesting to see how vanilla they take it, or if they'll keep some of the QoL features even if tiny: eg. mounts not dismounting in water, being able to AoE loot

Commentaire de kutku

on 2017-11-07T19:46:43-06:00

How many Vanilla players does it take to change a broken lightbulb?\rNobody knows, Blizzard has to change it, and then everyone wishes for darker nights.

Commentaire de greenegg

on 2017-11-07T19:53:06-06:00

super interesting that current wow has more concurrent players than classic, I wonder how current wow would be playing if they never introudced LFR and dungeon finder, and even crossrealm. Would the game be thriving due to its need for community? or would it be dead fr its lack of convenience? class design is ever changing so it's nothing to really get too hung up on, but these systems are in the game forever now, what would the game look like without them?

Commentaire de AnimeLeech

on 2017-11-07T19:54:38-06:00

i'm most looking forward to being able to do the onyxia quest chain which i heard was pretty awesome. i never got to do it. or to complete the an'qiraj quest. i think i was halfway through it when i got my entire dungeon set 2. (t 0.5) i don't think i'll be able to become scarab lord but i'd at least like to finish those storylines. :)\r\rthe immense increase in difficulty and loss of Quality of life i think will make it funny and interesting. i'm going in it expecting to sink hours on doing simple things. that's the point imo.

Commentaire de davewolfgang

on 2017-11-07T19:55:01-06:00

Going back to see a trainer every other level or so.\r\rNew weapon - better go start hitting stuff to skill it up.\r\rHaving to do 3-5 quest JUST to get to 2nd level.\r\rI miss those days - and you actually had to read the quest - there weren't any helpers out there.

Commentaire de Real2Reel

on 2017-11-07T19:57:24-06:00

I wonder if Classic will support an addon authoring system and if so, at what level of customisation. The 1.x API was pretty open to exploits.

Commentaire de Stormeey

on 2017-11-07T19:58:17-06:00

I wish Blizzard posted job opportunities like "coffee jockey" or "idea dart collector" because then I might have a chance at ever working there\r\r^^ this x1000! Well put!

Commentaire de vegeta0585

on 2017-11-07T20:09:37-06:00

Jeff only touched on what made vanilla \/ tbc so great, yes it was the community, but not because it was small.\r\rBack then things not only took time and investment, they were challenging. Kids these days may cringe when they hear sometimes you -died- doing the kill 10 rats quest because the rats freaking KILLED YOU. However I miss having to say "Hey, can anyone help me kill these rats that are eating my face?" I also miss that after I and newfound friendo killed the rats, I felt awesome. \r\rOld WoW made you feel like everything was an accomplishment. Mor'Ladim, Stitches, the entirety of STV, Finishing anything felt super rewarding. The dungeons even more so. You had to talk out what you were going to do, CC and manage aggro, it was an hour + long event that required friends who knew what they were doing or willing to talk and learn. Wow has turned this into a 10-ish minute event with no one saying a word. M+ has NOT fixed that even remotely, in fact it's done the opposite. I enjoy M+ in higher keystones, but its nowhere near the same. M+ has reversed the classic WoW vision on dungeons almost entirely. You almost never CC, you are focused on finishing it in as little time as possible, and if you're not on VOIP, talking is a waste of time. Literally. \r\rI don't miss CONTENT from vanilla wow. I miss having to try, and feeling rewarded when I did. No welfare gear. No one shotting things while I watch tv. No ez-mode aoe fest dungeons.

Commentaire de SyLVan0s

on 2017-11-07T20:12:25-06:00

Hope the design team could change this game again.

Commentaire de 1213501

on 2017-11-07T20:21:14-06:00

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Commentaire de Nezzaria

on 2017-11-07T20:45:35-06:00

i recently started playing again about a year ago. I played years ago(yes i guess that makes me old). I loved wow when I played "vanilla" and i love it now. I can't wait to check the new old out.

Commentaire de sunin6

on 2017-11-07T20:58:30-06:00

cant wait

Commentaire de RawrbertHydraxis

on 2017-11-07T21:12:35-06:00

Can't WAIT until my Hunter has Snakes again! Oh you might think you're not involved in the PVP in Astranaar; but my Snakes will prove you wrong!